3D Print Yourself

Before there were cameras, people commissioned artists to create paintings or sculptures of themselves to give as gifts or to be displayed in their own homes. Today, you are hard-pressed to find a home without a deluge of pictures of the residents, or smartphone users shooting "selfies."

TwinKinds, a German startup, is taking this to a whole new level by offering customers miniature statues of themselves or their pets that are easy to display anywhere (you just can’t put them in your wallet). The figurines are produced by using a full-body 3D scanner that takes an image of customer. Once the image is taken, it is then ready for printing in around 30 minutes (image file conversion), after which a 3D printer (it's unknown at this time which 3D printer is used) laser-sinters a composite powder layer by layer into the final product.

The reproduction of "you" is strikingly eerie in detail; everything is reproduced, from hairstyles, to the wrinkles in clothing, to colors. Customers can choose between several sizes of their figurines ranging from 6 inches ($300 US) to 13 inches ($1,700 US).

Sadly, customers need to be at the company’s headquarters in Germany in order to be scanned for their "mini-me," and the figures themselves are highly delicate and can be damaged if they come in contact with high heat, water, or even when dropped.

TwinKinds lifelike 3D-printed statues carry a high price tag and are as fragile as sand. (Source: TwinKinds)

Here are two others, a miniature and a full-sized replica.This is another, similar service for a doll-sized replica, My3DTwin:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2348962/3D-printer-make-doll-sized-twin-24And perhaps much weirder, a Japanese roboticist has made a full-sized twin of himself:http://japandailypress.com/japanese-robotics-scientist-hiroshi-ishiguro-unveils-body-double-robot-1730686/

While perusing the museum the other day I saw a detailed bust of a Neanderthal. Having just read an article on 3d printing, I thought it would be amusing to arrange to have someone who accompanies you to the museum to be scanned, so it can be THEIR FACE in the display case by the time you get to the bust of the Neanderthal. Record their reaction on videotape.

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are getting ready to explode onto the market and it appears all the heavy tech companies are trying to out-develop one another with better features than their competition. Fledgling start-up Vrvana has joined the fray.

A Tokyo company, Miraisens Inc., has unveiled a device that allows users to move virtual 3D objects around and "feel" them via a vibration sensor. The device has many applications within the gaming, medical, and 3D-printing industries.

While every company might have their own solution for PLM, Aras Innovator 10 intends to make PLM easier for all company sizes through its customization. The program is also not resource intensive, which allows it to be appropriated for any use. Some have even linked it to the Raspberry Pi.

solidThinking updated its Inspire program with a multitude of features to expedite the conception and prototype process. The latest version lets users blend design with engineering and manufacturing constraints to produce the cheapest, most efficient design before production.

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